Troy ticketing distracted drivers

It's been two months since Troy police began enforcing a new distracted driving ordinance.

Some violators have been lucky, while others have not.

Police recently released statistics related to the new law, and a total of 54 people had received tickets because of it as of late last month.

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At the time the statistics were released, that was an average of exactly one person a day.

Meanwhile, 90 people simply had warnings issued for similar violations.

The majority of the tickets and warnings are related to what the Troy Police Department describes as "handheld devices."

Violations regarding those devices constitute 116 of the 144 violations.

Texting makes up another 11 of the violations, while the rest are related to some other action.

The recently enacted law makes it illegal for drivers to do things like apply makeup, eat food or even speak on a cell phone if it is not a hands-free device, but there is an exception -- those who truly can drive well while performing those tasks are not likely to receive a ticket, as officers are trained to look for bad drivers.

'We're looking for bad driving'

"If we see bad driving, we're going to take some type of action," said Troy Police Lt. Bob Redmond.

"If (bad driving) is the result of one of three categories, you're gonna likely get a ticket or a warning, and that will basically be dependent upon your attitude when you get stopped. Some people have a knack for talking themselves out of tickets and some people have a knack for talking themselves into tickets."

Redmond said some people looked at the law as a money grab, fearing police would begin pulling people over at will for simply eating lunch or drinking a beverage while driving well.

"Someone said, 'Can I drink my coffee?' Yes you can, but not if you have to use two lanes of the road to do so, weaving all over the road," Redmond said.

"If you want to eat your hamburger, that's fine. Keep one hand on the wheel, eat your hamburger and go down the road safely, and you're not going to be bothered by us."

The statistics prove that police aren't earning any type of financial windfall by enforcing the law.

"If we are writing these tickets because we're getting money out of them, we are running a horrible business," Redmond said.

"I think people's fears were we were going to be writing hundreds of tickets for whatever we wanted to do. I think the statistics pretty much bear out that we're not doing that. We are looking for the bad driving behavior that can result in a ticket being issued depending on what you were doing behind the wheel of a car while driving."

Troy police have handed out approximately 1,500 tickets in 2011, and distracted driving citations make up only a small portion of that figure.

However, texting and driving -- which is illegal statewide -- is one area that most officers will have little tolerance for.

"If we see someone texting and driving, that's obviously very difficult to do," Redmond said.

A review of tickets that officers in Troy have handed out show that there are many more behaviors that could be even more dangerous than texting and driving.

One such incident occurred around 9:30 a.m. Feb. 28, when a woman was pulled over after an officer noticed she was clipping her fingernails. The woman, 39, of Waterford, did not have her hands on the steering wheel for nearly a mile on eastbound Big Beaver Road.

About four hours later, a 52-year-old Farmington Hills man was pulled over in the same area while talking on a cell phone and juggling papers. His hands also were not on the steering wheel.

In what may have been the most dangerous study session of all time, a 21-year-old man from Sterling Heights was pulled over on I-75 last month. The man was traveling 75 mph and weaving in and out of lanes while studying around 12:15 p.m. Feb. 18.

The previous week, another Sterling Heights resident was pulled over because of the new law. The 23-year-old woman was applying nail polish and talking on a cell phone when she was pulled over on Big Beaver around 4:30 p.m. Feb. 9.

An Eastpointe teenager was also pulled over because of the law. She was weaving in the left lane of I-75 while attempting to eat a bagel and apply cream cheese to it.

That incident took place around 9:30 a.m. Jan. 13.

In one of the more recent incidents, it was not danger as much as defiance that resulted in charges against a Sterling Heights man.

The 22-year-old was driving and talking on a cell phone near Big Beaver and Helena on March 1 when a police officer pulled alongside and motioned for him to end his conversation.

The man shook his head "no," and when the officer motioned again, he was met with the same response.

The driver was then pulled over for the infraction, but was charged with driving with a suspended license and obstructing a police officer after police said he lied about his identity.

Police said the man told them he was calling his boss to say he would be late for work and was unable to end the phone call.

He had a previous conviction for operating while intoxicated in 2009.

Distracted driving not always charged

Some citizens have been concerned after reading news reports about people practicing distracted driving while violating the law in other ways.

"One lady said, 'I know I wasn't speeding. I was busy talking on my phone, playing on my phone.'

"She got arrested for drunk driving. I got a call asking why she wasn't ticketed for distracted driving but I would think the drunk part is more important."

Officers have also had some leeway with people they believe truly did not know about the law.

"Talking to the officers on the road, it's about half and half (between people who know about the law and those who don't)," Redmond said.

"A lot of times, it's a simple, 'I wasn't.' They know the law because the person said, 'No, I wasn't.' Well, the officer stopped you because he saw you were."

But not all drivers are that way.

"A lot of people, maybe smarter than me, don't pay attention to the news whatsoever so they don't drive themselves crazy. They don't read papers, they don't listen to the news -- they don't know.

"I don't believe anybody would get a ticket if the officer truly believed they had no clue it was a law. If you stop an out-of-state driver on I-75, how's he supposed to know? There's no signs and he's not gonna read the paper to see what's going on in Troy."